Utility Strategies to Meet Data Centers Load

Rapid growth in data centers, artificial intelligence workloads, and electrification is creating a new era of concentrated load growth that is reshaping how utilities plan, invest, and operate their systems. This keynote will examine the regulatory, infrastructure, and planning challenges utilities face as they work to maintain reliability while accommodating large new customers and accelerating demand.

This session examines how utilities and planners are adapting forecasting, system planning, and capital investment strategies to manage unprecedented data center demand.

• Anticipating AI-driven and hyperscale load profiles
• Aligning load forecasts with generation, transmission, and distribution planning
• Lessons learned from regions experiencing rapid data center growth
• Managing uncertainty and stranded-asset risk

Early coordination between utilities, developers, and infrastructure partners is increasingly essential as hyperscale data centers pursue projects with extremely large and technically complex power and cooling requirements. Drawing on perspectives from a utility, technology providers, and industry analysts, this session will examine how early-stage collaboration on site selection, infrastructure planning, thermal management, and community engagement can help identify constraints, align development timelines, and reduce project risk before interconnection requests are submitted.

As data center demand grows, water utilities and developers face increasing challenges in planning and managing resources. This session will explore how municipal water systems, developers, and data center operators can work together to ensure reliable water supply while balancing competing demands. Topics include planning for new data center water needs, coordinating with residential, commercial, and environmental stakeholders, and fostering collaboration between water and electric utilities.

The discussion will also cover cooling strategies and efficiency, long-term water planning and community impacts, and insights from Denver Water’s sustainability and decarbonization efforts, offering practical lessons for managing high-demand infrastructure in a sustainable and resilient way.

As utilities connect increasingly large loads such as hyperscale data centers, regulators and utilities are reassessing how rates and tariffs should allocate the cost of new infrastructure while maintaining fairness across all customer classes. This panel will examine approaches to large-load tariffs, clean energy and capacity offerings, and cost-recovery mechanisms that support grid investment while balancing affordability, transparency, and long-term system needs.

Utilities connecting large data center loads are increasingly examining how these facilities can support grid flexibility rather than simply add to peak demand. This session will explore practical strategies that can help utilities manage infrastructure constraints, reduce system costs, and maintain reliable operations as hyperscale loads come online. It will also consider the role and challenges of both electric and natural gas solutions in enabling faster, more reliable service for these large loads.